Without the consent of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh it would not be possible to formalize any peace agreement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday in Yerevan at a joint press conference with his Armenian counterpart Zohrab Mnatsakanyan. Sergey Lavrov arrived on a two-day official visit to Yerevan on November 10.
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“Everyone understands that without the consent of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, it will not be possible to formalize any peace agreement. Armenia simply will not sign it. This is the point we proceed from. I want to repeat what Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at our meeting: he recalled one of his public statements in which he said that the final peace agreement should take into account the interests of Armenia, Karabakh, and Azerbaijan. It’s hard to argue with that,” Lavrov said.
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Asked about his own vision of how the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict could be solved in view of the fact that Azerbaijan insists that its territorial integrity can not be violated, Lavrov repeated Pashinyan’s formula that the agreement should take into account the interests of all three parties.
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Lavrov said also that the principles of territorial integrity, the right of peoples to self-determination and exclusively peaceful settlement of disputes are enshrined in all versions of documents that are discussed between the parties. In any case, the final decision must take into account all these principles. Neither Yerevan nor Baku argue with this,” Lavrov said.
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The Russian Foreign Minister noted that the Minsk Group co-chairs are trying to ensure that this compromise is honest and reflect a real, fair balance of interests.
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H/T Massis Post